High net-worth individuals whose aircraft is on auction after they were declared a safety risk by the Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) have started clearing them.
A statement by the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA) said that some of them have already been cleared but others are idling at the airports.
In August, KAA issued a 30-day notice to the owners of 101 planes that were lying idle at the airports to clear them or they are subjected to a public auction.
Some of the planes belonged to politicians while others were aircraft for commercial flights including those owned by Jetlink, 748 Air Services and Silverstone Air.
Moi University, Kenya Police Air Wing, Jubba Airways and Somali Airforce also had their planes among the 101 abandoned at Moi International Airport in Mombasa, Lokichoggio Airport, Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) and Wilson Airport in Nairobi.
“KAA says they are still within the 30 days period of auction. The exercise is not yet over. Some plane owners have come to clear their aircraft while others have not. It’s work in progress,” KCAA director-general Gilbert Kibe told Business Daily in an interview.
Wilson Airport had the largest number of abandoned planes, 64 that risk being auctioned. Five of them belong to Kenya Police Air Wing, Moi University and commercial entities; Silverstone Air and Skylink.
AT JKIA, there are 17 abandoned planes including a Bombardier plane estimated to cost Ksh2 billion owned by Jetlink, two Soviet-built passenger plane owned by Somali Airforce and two Boeing planes owned by Jubba Airways.
